In general, an optical fiber connector includes a ferrule having the end of an optical fiber held therein. When a connection is made between two optical fibers in abutments, the ferrules of the connectors for each of the ends are coupled together so as to hold the optical fibers in alignment and in close contact, in order to minimize light losses. Light is lost whenever the ends of the fibers are not in alignment or are. separated by a gap.
It is therefore desirable to eliminate any misalignment or any gap of that type.
In order to ensure good contact between the end faces of the fibers, and thus ensure good light transmission, the ends are inserted and adhesively bonded in the ferrules of the connectors. Thereafter, the ends of the fibers are cut at a certain distance from the front faces of the ferrules and they are polished, with an initial step for shortening them using polishing paper of relatively coarse grain, and with one or more additional polishing steps using one or more polishing papers of finer grain. As a general rule, the paper used has grains of alumina or of diamond.
It is known to perform such polishing manually with the help of a ferrule support as described in patent document U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,148, or with the help of a support for connectors of different types as disclosed in patent document U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,242.
The support is then placed on a polishing paper and is moved by hand, generally to trace out a figure-of-eight shape, so as to ensure that polishing movements are performed in all directions and avoid forming polishing grooves that could lead to a poor polishing finish and to additional losses of light when the optical fibers are brought into abutment.
Nevertheless, such a manual polishing method requires personnel to be particularly highly qualified if a good result is to be obtained.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,508 proposes a mechanical polisher device that rotates a disk supporting a polishing film and that synchronously moves a ferrule support in translation by rotating a drive crank that may be turned manually or by a motor.
Nevertheless, that device is relatively bulky and of particularly complex structure, since synchronization is achieved by a system of gears inside the device.